Friday, June 20, 2014

New Chicago gun shop ordinance will put up to 99.5 percent of the city off-limits

Chicago council members who approved the city’s strict new gun shop license program Wednesday call it, “one of the smartest” in the country.Among the many tenets of the city’s draft would include fees of up to $3,800 per shop, waiting periods on purchases, restrictions on location that would put most of Chicago off-limits, and videotaping sales transactions.“I don’t think we want these kinds of things in our communities at all,” Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., speaking for many in the council, told DNAinfo Chicago.Others on the City council’s Committee on Public Safety praised the proposed regulations, with committee chairman Ald. James Balcer calling the package, “one of the smartest, most cutting-edge licensing laws in the country.”The city had in 2010 practically banned the sale of firearms inside its limits, only to have Federal Judge Edmond E. Chang rule the restrictions unconstitutional this January. Chang then specified that the city have new regulations in place within six months following a request from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.The 30-page proposal would require bi-yearly fees ranging from $1,100 for a “weapons dealer” who would be cleared to sell stun guns, to $3,800 for firearms dealers. In addition to this, the language of the ordinance would forbid issuing licenses to anyone working from a home, or within 500 feet of a park, school, church, or any building leased to or owned by the city, state, or federal government.It is believed that this would put some 99.5 percent of the city off-limits to potential gun stores.